Karin Ann’s “Heroes” cover with Bowie bandmates

I am excited to be joined tomorrow for my weekly interview by Karin Ann, an exciting emerging artist out of Slovakia. Karin is already well established in Central Europe, but with her debut album, Through the Telescope (2024), garnering international acclaim, she is poised to break through as a global superstar. And though Karin usually performs and records her own original music, she recently released this terrific cover of Bowie’s “Heroes” with the added benefit of recording it with several Bowie alumni, all of whom are featured in the video that’s embedded in this post.

My introduction to Karin was this video; however, that opened the door for me to more of her music. She has a great voice and is a talented songwriter. Beyond that, her videos have a cinematic quality to them. Compared to some of the others, which are like mini-movies, the “Heroes” video is fairly straightforward, showing Karin and the band at work putting the song together. But to a certain audience — like anyone reading this blog — seeing the band playing together is an event in itself.

Karin’s band for this song is made up of Bowie alumni including Everett Bradley on percussion and backing vocals, Sterling Campbell on drums, Gail Ann Dorsey on backing vocals, Henry Hey on the organ, Gerry Leonard on guitar, Donny McCaslin on saxophone and flute, Catherine Russell on backing vocals, and Mark Plati, who produced the piece, on bass, guitar, Mellotron, and backing vocals.

(I should also mention the string section, who, to my knowledge, are not Bowie alumni — Sara Caswell, Monica Davis, Katie Kresek, and Noah Hoffeld.)

This particular combination of Bowie collaborators did not work with Bowie all at the same time (though I have seen them play together at the annual Sound and Vision of David Bowie tribute concert at the Cutting Room in New York). But you can tell why Bowie wanted to work with these artists. Many of them have been previous guests on my show, and to me, they are superstars. To some extent, I feel like their participation in this project is some kind of official designation that Karin Ann is an official torch-bearer.

Perhaps most importantly, the song sounds great.

So watch the video, and be sure to come back tomorrow to hear from Karin herself!